Food Prices

The Smartest Investment Of The Decade

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Farmland is a good investment … if you know the future.

If you had invested in a nice organic farm in Fukushima Pref. your investment is now worthless.

Considering Agenda 21 and the plans of Big Agribusiness you do not want to invest heavily in farmland at the wrong place.

Never put all your eggs in one basket (unless you exactly know the future).

Food, water, gold, silver and survival gear come first.

If you then can still afford a remote farm without going into debt, then farmland is indeed a good investment.

– The Smartest Investment Of The Decade (ZeroHedge, Nov 12, 2012):

Here’s something crazy to think about.

Roughly 200,000 people were born today. That’s net world population growth, births minus deaths.

Each one of them constitutes a new mouth to feed. And when they come of age, those 200,000 people will consume, conservatively, about 1,250 Calories per day. Collectively, that’s 91.25 billion Calories per year for the entire 200,000 people that were born today.

Where will they get that food from?

Read moreThe Smartest Investment Of The Decade

Global Food Reserves Have Reached Their Lowest Level In Almost 40 Years

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Flashback:

– USDA: No strategic grain reserves … they sold them!

– Global Food Reserves Have Reached Their Lowest Level In Almost 40 Years (The Truth, Oct 16, 2012):

For six of the last eleven years the world has consumed more food than it has produced.  This year, drought in the United States and elsewhere has put even more pressure on global food supplies than usual.  As a result, global food reserves have reached their lowest level in almost 40 years.  Experts are warning that if next summer is similar to this summer that it could be enough to trigger a major global food crisis.  At this point, the world is literally living from one year to the next.  There is simply not much of a buffer left.  In the western world, the first place where we are going to notice the impact of this crisis is in the price of food.  It is being projected that overall food prices will rise between 5 and 20 percent by the end of this year.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the world has reached a tipping point.  We aren’t producing enough food for everyone anymore, and food reserves will continue to get lower and lower.  Eventually they will be totally gone.

The United Nations has issued an unprecedented warning about the state of global food supplies.  According to the UN, global food reserves have not been this low since 1974…

Read moreGlobal Food Reserves Have Reached Their Lowest Level In Almost 40 Years

Food Is The New Oil And Land The New Gold – “The Term ‘Food Unrest’ Will Become Part Of Our Daily Vocabulary”

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– Food is the New Oil and Land the New Gold: Lester Brown (Yahoo Finance, Oct 5, 2012):

The United Nations food agency reports that food prices are rising again, reaching 6-month highs and nearing levels not since 2008. Higher prices then spurred food riots in the Middle East and North Africa, which fueled the Arab Spring.

There’s no sign of widespread food riots now but eventually there could be, says Lester Brown, president and founder of the Earth Policy Institute and author of the new book “Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity.”

“The term ‘food unrest’ will become part of our daily vocabulary,” Brown tells The Daily Ticker.It reflects the imbalance between the supply of food and demand for food globally.

Read moreFood Is The New Oil And Land The New Gold – “The Term ‘Food Unrest’ Will Become Part Of Our Daily Vocabulary”

World Food Prices Rise, Stay Close To 2008 Food Crisis Levels

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– World Food Prices Rise, Stay Close To Crisis Levels: FAO (Reuters, Oct 4, 2012):

World food prices rose in September and are seen remaining close to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday, while cutting its forecast for global cereal output.

The worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States sent corn and soybean prices to record highs over the summer, and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, raised fears of a renewed crisis.

Read moreWorld Food Prices Rise, Stay Close To 2008 Food Crisis Levels

World On Track For Record Food Prices ‘Within A Year’ Due To US Drought

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Brace yourself for some painful “agflation”. That is the shorthand for agricultural commodity inflation, otherwise known as rising food prices.


Rabobank thinks the consumer impact could be less painful this time around compared to 2008, when there were severe shortages of wheat and rice. That is because today’s shortages are being seen more in crops used as animal feed, such as corn and soybeans. Photo: Reuters

– World on track for record food prices ‘within a year’ due to US drought (Telegraph, sep 23, 2012):

They are being driven upwards by the climb in grain and oilseed prices as US crops weather the country’s worst drought since 1936, while the farming belts of Russia and South America suffer through similar water shortages.

What we are seeing represents the third major rally in global grain and oilseed prices in just half a decade.

Read moreWorld On Track For Record Food Prices ‘Within A Year’ Due To US Drought

‘We’ll Make A Killing Out Of Food Crisis’, Psychopathic Glencore Trading Boss Chris Mahoney Boasts

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– ‘We’ll make a killing out of food crisis’, psychopathic Glencore trading boss Chris Mahoney boasts (Sott.net, Aug 30, 2012):

Drought is good for business, says world’s largest commodities trading company

The United Nations, aid agencies and the British Government have lined up to attack the world’s largest commodities trading company, Glencore, after it described the current global food crisis and soaring world prices as a “good” business opportunity.

With the US experiencing a rerun of the drought “Dust Bowl” days of the 1930s and Russia suffering a similar food crisis that could see Vladimir Putin’s government banning grain exports, the senior economist of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, Concepcion Calpe, told The Independent: “Private companies like Glencore are playing a game that will make them enormous profits.”

Read more‘We’ll Make A Killing Out Of Food Crisis’, Psychopathic Glencore Trading Boss Chris Mahoney Boasts

Deep Fried Black Swan Lands As China Admits It Has A Food Inflation Problem, Releases Corn, Rice From Reserves

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– Deep Fried Black Swan Lands As China Admits It Has A Food Inflation Problem, Releases Corn, Rice From Reserves (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

Last week we wrote an article that to many was anathema: namely an explanation why everyone is deluding themselves in their expectation that the PBOC would ease, soft, hard, or just right landing notwithstanding. The reason? The threat that food inflation is about to read its ugly head which is “Why The Fate Of The Global Equity Rally May Rest In The Hands Of Soybeans.” This was merely a continuation of our observations from a month ago that as a result of the Black Swan being “deep fried” in 2012, that the threat of food inflation will keep key BRIC central banks in check for a long time. As of today the threat has become fact, because as China Daily reports “China will release corn and rice from state reserves to help tame inflation and reduce imports as the worst US drought in half a century pushes corn prices to global records, creating fears of a world food crisis…The release may prompt Chinese importers to cancel shipments in the near term and take some pressure off international corn prices, which set a new all-time high on Friday as the US government slashed its estimate of the size of the crop in the world’s top grain exporter.” Sure, as every other short-termist measure the world over, it may help with prices in the short-term, but will merely expose China, and thus everyone, to the threat of a much greater price spike in the future. Because just as the strategic petroleum reserve release did nothing to help gas prices, nor the short selling ban in the US and Europe did anything to help the underlying broken financial system, so this will merely force the local population to scramble and ration whatever food they can get asap, now that the government has admitted there is, indeed, a food inflationary problem.

Sure enough:

Bottom line – rationing is in full force, and given the continually declining state of the US corn crop, more will be needed,” said Christopher Narayanan, head of agricultural commodities research at Societe Generale.

Read moreDeep Fried Black Swan Lands As China Admits It Has A Food Inflation Problem, Releases Corn, Rice From Reserves

UN Alarmed Over Sharp Rise in Grain Prices

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– UN Alarmed Over Sharp Rise in Grain Prices (VOA, July 21, 2012):

A 20-percent spike in maize and wheat prices in just the past three weeks is raising concerns with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

FAO economist Shukri Ahmed said the increase in price was sharp and sudden. He said that until May, experts were hoping for a huge increase in worldwide maize production.

Read moreUN Alarmed Over Sharp Rise in Grain Prices

The Price Of Corn Hits Record High As Global Food Crisis Looms

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– The Price Of Corn Hits A Record High As A Global Food Crisis Looms (The Economic Collapse, July 21, 2012):

Are you ready for the next major global food crisis?  The price of corn hit an all-time record high on Thursday.  So did the price of soybeans.  The price of corn is up about 50 percent since the middle of last month, and the price of wheat has risen by about 50 percent over the past five weeks.  On Thursday, corn for September delivery reached $8.166 per bushel, and many analysts believe that it could hit $10 a bushel before this crisis is over.  The worst drought in the United States in more than 50 years is projected to continue well into August, and more than 1,300 counties in the United States have been declared to be official natural disaster areas.  So how is this crisis going to affect the average person on the street?  Well, most Americans and most Europeans are going to notice their grocery bills go up significantly over the coming months.  That will not be pleasant.  But in other areas of the world this crisis could mean the difference between life and death for some people.  You see, half of all global corn exports come from the United States.  So what happens if the U.S. does not have any corn to export?  About a billion people around the world live on the edge of starvation, and today the Financial Times ran a front page story with the following headline: “World braced for new food crisis“.  Millions upon millions of families in poor countries are barely able to feed themselves right now.  So what happens if the price of the food that they buy goes up dramatically?

Read moreThe Price Of Corn Hits Record High As Global Food Crisis Looms

Food Price Spike Dead Ahead: US Cuts Corn Crop Forecast By 12% As 56% Of America Is Under Drought Conditions (Video)

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– Food Price Spike Dead Ahead: US Cuts Corn Crop Forecast By 12% As 56% Of America Is Under Drought Conditions (ZeroHedge, July 11, 2012):

Who knew the next black swan would be deep fried? The biggest piece of imminent food inflation news over the past months, coupled with what is shaping up to be another record hot summer (for the best tracking of real-time electricity consumption primarily for cooling news we recommend the following PJM RT tracker of power load), has been the collapse in the corn harvest due to the worst drought since 1988 as 56% of America is in drought conditions. Today, the US just added some burning oil to the popcorn by cutting the corn-crop forecast by 12% to 13 billion bushels on expectations of a 13.5 billion harvest. Then again, who needs corn, when you can have cake?

Bloomberg explains:

Heatwave Threatens US Grain Harvest (Financial Times)

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Flashback:

– USDA: No strategic grain reserves … they sold them!

– Heatwave threatens US grain harvest (Fianacial Times, July 2, 2012):

An intense heatwave is threatening havoc with this year’s US grain harvest, burning up hopes of blockbuster yields and sending prices soaring.

Even a modest reduction in crops could send ripples through global food commodities markets, as the US is the world’s top exporter of corn, soyabeans and wheat, and stocks of the first two are relatively low.

Read moreHeatwave Threatens US Grain Harvest (Financial Times)

Drought Threatens U.S. Food Prices

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– Drought threatens U.S. food prices (Washington Post, June 27, 2012):

A drought in the Corn Belt and elsewhere in the Midwest has pushed the bushel price of corn up about 27 percent in the past month alone, and there is little sign of rain in the near future, a forecast that could soon push up food costs across the country, meteorologists say.

Last week, 63 percent of the corn crop was rated in good or better condition, according to the Agriculture Department. This week, that figure had fallen to 56 percent.

Concerns arise as the crop approaches pollination, a particularly sensitive two-week period when bad weather can inflict significant damage.

Japan Rice Futures Surge 40%, Trigger Circuit Breaker On Concerns Fukushima Radiation Will Destroy Crops

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Flashback:

– Former Japanese Government Nuclear Advisor Toshiso Kosako: ‘Come The Harvest Season In The Fall, There Will Be A Chaos’ – Ceiling On Schoolyard Radiation Levels ‘Unacceptable’ – Much More Radiation Threats To Come

– Japan Rice Futures Surge 40%, Trigger Circuit Breaker On Concerns Fukushima Radiation Will Destroy Crops (ZeroHedge, Aug 8, 2011):

70 years after rice futures trading was halted on the Tokyo Grain Exchange, it was finally reopened today… only to be halted immediately. The reason: concerns that Fukushima radiation would destroy rice crops and collapse supply sent the contract price soaring from the reference price of Y13,500 to a ridiculous Y18,500 at which point it was halted. Note the tick chart below which puts any of our own stupid vacuum tube-induced HFT algos to outright shame. That said, the move should not come as a surprise at least to our readers after we predicted the day Fukushima blew up (and even before) that very soon rice prices would surge to record highs. Little by little, that realization is dawning on everyone.

More from Bloomberg:

The exchange listed rice contracts today for the first time since the start of World War II to boost flagging volumes and profit. The resumption comes as fallout from the Fukushima Dai- Ichi power plant may spread after it was found cattle had been fed cesium-tainted rice straw.

Read moreJapan Rice Futures Surge 40%, Trigger Circuit Breaker On Concerns Fukushima Radiation Will Destroy Crops

UN: Worst Drought In 60 Years Hits Horn Of Africa

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– Worst drought in 60 years hitting Horn of Africa: U.N. (Reuters, June 28, 2011)

GENEVA (Reuters) – The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and the situation is deteriorating, it said.

“Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones,” Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told a media briefing.

“There is no likelihood of improvement (in the situation)until 2012,” she said.

Food prices have risen substantially in the region, pushing many moderately poor households over the edge, she said.

Read moreUN: Worst Drought In 60 Years Hits Horn Of Africa

Food Price Inflation Explosion ‘Will Devastate The World’s Poor’

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As intended by the elitists.

– Food price explosion ‘will devastate the world’s poor’ (Guardian, June 17, 2011):

After a 40% rise in global prices over the past year, droughts and floods threaten to seriously damage this year’s harvest

Food prices will soar by as much as 30% over the next 10 years, the United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have predicted.

Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the OECD, said that any further increase in global food prices, which have risen by 40% over the past year, will have a “devastating” impact on the world’s poor and is likely to lead to political unrest, famine and starvation. “People are going to be forced either to eat less or find other sources of income.”

The joint UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and OECD report predicted that the cost of cereals is likely to increase by 20% and the price of meat, particularly chicken, may soar by up to 30%.

Read moreFood Price Inflation Explosion ‘Will Devastate The World’s Poor’

Europe Braces For Serious Crop Losses And Blackouts – Rainfall Down 40-80%

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– Europe Braces for Serious Crop Losses and Blackouts (Scientific American, June 13, 2011):

LONDON — One of the driest spring seasons on record in northern Europe has sucked soils dry and sharply reduced river levels to the point that governments are starting to fear crop losses and France, in particular, is bracing for blackouts as its river-cooled nuclear power plants may be forced to shut down.

French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire warned this week that the warmest and driest spring in half a century could slash wheat yields and might even push up world prices despite the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s predicting a bumper global crop due to greater plantings.

Read moreEurope Braces For Serious Crop Losses And Blackouts – Rainfall Down 40-80%

Corn Price Jumps To 3-Year High As USDA Slashes Inventory Estimates

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– Corn Futures Climb to Three-Year High as USDA Slashes Inventory Estimates (Bloomberg, Jun 9, 2011):

Corn jumped to the highest price in almost three years after the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast tighter supplies, as adverse weather hurt crops.

U.S. stockpiles before the start of the 2012 harvest may fall to 695 million bushels, the lowest since 1996, even as farmers collect a record crop, the USDA said. World inventories are projected to drop next year to the lowest since 2004. Prices have more than doubled in the past year as global output trailed gains in demand for livestock feed and biofuels.

Read moreCorn Price Jumps To 3-Year High As USDA Slashes Inventory Estimates

UN Warns Of Food Riots In Developing World As Food Inflation Continuous To Skyrocket

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European dry spell and commodities speculation combine to push up average cereal costs by 71% to record levels


The dry riverbed of the Loire near the Anjou-Bretagne bridge in Ancenis, western France. Photograph: Stephane Mahe/REUTERS

Food prices are expected to hit new highs in the coming weeks, tightening the squeeze on UK households and potentially triggering further unrest in developing countries unless there is heavy rainfall across drought-affected Europe, the United Nations has warned.

The average global price of cereals jumped by 71% to a new record in the year to April, more than three times higher than a decade ago, according to latest UN figures, prompting its Food and Agriculture Organisation to warn that Europe faces a pivotal few weeks.

With the dry spell forecast to continue for several weeks across Europe, Abdolreza Abbassian, senior grains economist at the FAO, said: “Europe is entering a very critical month. We can’t do without rain any more. If the current situation continues prices will respond very aggressively.”

“Our fear is that we still haven’t seen the worst of food inflation in vulnerable countries and that could be coming. One way or another, rising food prices bring hardship on their people and you can’t rule out the possibility of further food riots. A lot depends on the next few weeks and it’s impossible to predict how Mother Nature will behave,” Abbassian added.

Read moreUN Warns Of Food Riots In Developing World As Food Inflation Continuous To Skyrocket

Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Revolution is the Only Answer (For Greece, Ireland etc.)

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Paul Craig Roberts:

“The west prides itself that it is the standard for the world, that it is a democracy. But nowhere do you see democratic outcomes: not in Greece, not in Ireland, not in the UK, not here, the outcomes are always to punish the innocent and reward the guilty.

And that’s what the Greeks are in the streets, protesting. We see this all over the west.

There is no democracy, there are oligarchies, some of these smaller European countries are not even run by their own governments, they are run by Wall Street… There is probably more democracy in China than there is in the west.

Revolution is the only answer… We are confronted with a curious situation.

Throughout the west we think we have democracy, we hold ourselves up high, we demonize China, we talk about the mafia state of Russia, we talk about the Arabs and so on, but where is the democracy here?”

20 Signs That A Horrific Global Food Crisis Is Coming

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In case you haven’t noticed, the world is on the verge of a horrific global food crisis.  At some point, this crisis will affect you and your family.  It may not be today, and it may not be tomorrow, but it is going to happen.  Crazy weather and horrifying natural disasters have played havoc with agricultural production in many areas of the globe over the past couple of years.  Meanwhile, the price of oil has begun to skyrocket.  The entire global economy is predicated on the ability to use massive amounts of inexpensive oil to cheaply produce food and other goods and transport them over vast distances.  Without cheap oil the whole game changes.  Topsoil is being depleted at a staggering rate and key aquifers all over the world are being drained at an alarming pace.  Global food prices are already at an all-time high and they continue to move up aggressively.  So what is going to happen to our world when hundreds of millions more people cannot afford to feed themselves?

Most Americans are so accustomed to supermarkets that are absolutely packed to the gills with massive amounts of really inexpensive food that they cannot even imagine that life could be any other way.  Unfortunately, that era is ending.

There are all kinds of indications that we are now entering a time when there will not be nearly enough food for everyone in the world.  As competition for food supplies increases, food prices are going to go up.  In fact, at some point they are going to go way up.

Let’s look at some of the key reasons why an increasing number of people believe that a massive food crisis is on the horizon.

The following are 20 signs that a horrific global food crisis is coming….

Read more20 Signs That A Horrific Global Food Crisis Is Coming

World Bank President Robert Zoellick: World’s Poor ‘One Shock’ From Crisis as Food Prices Climb

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Exactly as planned by the elitists.

Apr. 17 (Bloomberg) — World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the global economy is “one shock away” from a crisis in food supplies and prices.

Zoellick estimated 44 million people have fallen into poverty due to rising food prices in the past year, and a 10 percent increase in the food price index would send 10 million more people into poverty. The United Nations FAO Food Price index jumped 25 percent last year, the second-steepest increase since at least 1991, and surged to a record in February.

Food price inflation is “the biggest threat today to the world’s poor,” Zoellick said at a press conference following meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. “We are one shock away from a full-blown crisis.”

“For most commodities, stocks are relatively low,” he said. “You have one other weather event in some of these areas and you really take a danger zone and start to push people over the edge.”

Read moreWorld Bank President Robert Zoellick: World’s Poor ‘One Shock’ From Crisis as Food Prices Climb

US: Food Prices Soared 3.9 Percent (Vegetable Costs Increased Nearly 50 Percent), Energy Prices Rose 3.3 Percent Last Month

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Excluding those volatile categories, inflation was tame.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the Producer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent in February — double the 0.8 percent rise in the previous month. Outside of food and energy costs, the core index ticked up 0.2 percent, less than January’s 0.5 percent rise.

Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in vegetable costs, which increased nearly 50 percent. That was the most in almost a year. Meat and dairy products also rose.

Energy prices rose 3.3 percent last month, led by a 3.7 percent increase in gasoline costs.

Read moreUS: Food Prices Soared 3.9 Percent (Vegetable Costs Increased Nearly 50 Percent), Energy Prices Rose 3.3 Percent Last Month

Senior HSBC Economist Karen Ward: Rising Food And Energy Prices Could Spark Riots In The UK

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A SENIOR economist at the worldwide bank HSBC has warned of civil unrest in Britain if food prices continue to soar, Sky News reported yesterday.

Karen Ward cautioned that the UK was not immune to the kind of “food riots” seen in other countries around the world.

“Even in the developed world I think we have very, very low wage growth, so people aren’t getting more in their pay packet to compensate them for food and energy, and I think we could see social unrest certainly in parts of the developed world and the UK as well,” she told Sky News.

Read moreSenior HSBC Economist Karen Ward: Rising Food And Energy Prices Could Spark Riots In The UK

UN: World Food Prices Hit Record

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A woman looks for her groceries at a supermarket in Caracas (Reuters)

MILAN (Reuters) – Global food prices hit a record high in February, the United Nations said on Thursday, warning that surprise oil price spikes induced by Middle East unrest would impact already volatile cereal markets.

Rising food prices are a fast-growing global concern, partly fuelling the protests which toppled the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt in January and February, which in turn unleashed unrest in North Africa and the Middle East from Algeria to Yemen.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Price Index hit its second straight record last month, further passing peaks seen in 2008 when prices sparked riots in several countries, driven by rising grain costs and tighter supply.

Read moreUN: World Food Prices Hit Record